National Grid to seek delay in permit to construct west side 'Smart Grid' tower

Friday

Oct 18, 2013 at 11:26 PM

By Nick Kotsopoulos, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — National Grid is asking for a six-week postponement of two petitions it has before the Zoning Board of Appeals to erect a specialized communications tower for its "smart grid" program in the Tatnuck Square area.

The electric company is requesting a continuance for a petition the zoning board is supposed to hear Monday night for a special permit and variance to construct a 90-foot-high, ground-mounted monopole at its substation at 597 Mill St. The tower would have three WiMAX and two microwave antennas attached to the pole, which would serve as a transmission structure for National Grid's Smart Energy Solutions program, also referred to as its "smart grid" program.

Elizabeth F. Mason, a lawyer representing National Grid, said the company wants additional time so it can obtain final environmental testing results and submit additional materials in support of its application. She will be asking the zoning board Monday night to postpone the scheduled public hearing on the matter until Dec. 2. At the same time, National Grid is also requesting a postponement of a petition it has before the zoning board for construction of an 80-foot-high lattice tower with a 10-foot-high mast at its Cooks Pond electric substation on Tory Fort Lane.

The company had originally planned to construct the communications tower for its smart grid program there, but decided to put those plans on hold after strong neighborhood opposition surfaced. As an alternative to the Tory Fort Lane site, National Grid proposed constructing the tower at its Mill Street substation in the heart of Tatnuck Square. Even though National Grid came up with an alternative site, it never withdrew its petition for zoning relief for the Tory Fort Lane site.

Ms. Mason said National Grid also wants to postpone the public hearing for the Tory Fort Lane site until Dec. 2, so the company can have time to obtain final environmental testing results regarding its alternative site on Mill Street.

To construct the tower at its Mill Street substation, National Grid needs a special permit to allow a wireless facility in a business-general zoning district, and a zoning variance because the height limit in that zone is 40 feet. But that proposal is running into opposition as well, as a group has formed to try to put the brakes on National Grid's plans to erect the communications tower in Tatnuck Square.

As part of the smart grid pilot program, National Grid wants to construct a communications infrastructure at four electric substations, so data about the electrical grid system could be passed along throughout various parts of the city. The Zoning Board of Appeals already has granted special permits so National Grid can erect personal wireless service facilities at three substations: Vernon Hill (10 Gloucester Road and 245 Vernon St.), Greendale (4 Naples Road) and the Bloomingdale station off Wigwam Avenue. The missing piece to the puzzle is a communications tower somewhere on the city's West Side.

A smart grid is an "intelligent" electricity distribution network that uses two-way communications, advanced sensors and specialized computers that can help reduce customers' energy use and facilitate greater reliability, efficiency and availability of the electricity distribution system. At each of the four locations, National Grid will install WiMAX towers to collect data transmitted from "smart meters" installed for 15,000 customers so it can be passed along to the utility and back to customers through Internet and mobile apps.

The meters are intended to give the utility more pinpointed information about customer usage and provide customers a better sense of how they use electricity.